Crazy weather, record high water, heat, t-storms, rain and snow

Well, we called it off in Stanley just in the nick of time! The 'blown-out' river was not a temporary phenomenon! We are in full on run-off mode!
It all started with record high temperatures bringing all of the rivers in our neck of the wood up suddenly. Then we started breaking all sorts of stream-flow records, records over the last 80 years, some of which had been in place since 30's. The next step was that the records were exceeded by 1000cfs. A few nights ago the Salmon river topped out at 7000cfs more than double the previous record!
Torrential downpours from some thunderstorms prompted the National Weather Service to issue a flood warning for the Big Wood. It reached 5.84 only .16" from flood stage.
Although the rivers are still mighty and muddy, things have mellowed out a bit because we have returned to normal late April temps of the low 30's at night and the 50's in the daytime. Looks like the flooding threat is over for now.
The big question remains, however, of what will happen when run-off normally occurs, in late May to early June. SWE show miserably low snow packs, but if you look up into the mountains, a lot of snow has to come off yet. One has to remember that the SNOTEL sites are located in the 7000-7600' elevations, and that snow is now gone. It will take much higher temperatures to affect the snow pack above that, but, if it rains a lot, or if temps rise into the 80's, we could still see high water a little later on.

 Here is the graph of the Salmon from last week to current and below that the gauge height of the Big Wood for the last week to today

			Most recent instantaneous value: 4,750   04-28-2012  10:45 MDT   Daily discharge statistics, in cfs, for Apr 28 based on 80 years of record more Min (1955) 25th percen- tile Median Mean 75th percen- tile Max (1952) Most Recent Instantaneous Value Apr 28 434 903 1130 1350 1840 3180 4750 Most recent instantaneous value: 4.48   04-28-2012  11:00 MDT     Create presentation-quality / stand-alone graph.   Subscribe to WaterAlert

Still-water Time

With record flows across the entire state, it's time to find your favorite lake or reservoir and perfect your still-water game.  The uncharacteristic warm temperatures that we've seen this spring have blown out just about every fishable stream in Idaho.  Spring is a great opportunity to put some time in on places that we don't usually fish during peak season.  There are a number of good still-waters close Ketchum, so come in to the shop and we'll figure out a place to fish.  Here is a picture of a fish Cody caught on Magic last week.

 

Record high temps, record streamflows, and steelhead season is over!

Good Morning from Stanley!

view from the lodge

In the past couple of nights we have broken some streamflow records for the Salmon River that have stood for decades! Last night the Salmon below the Yankee Fork broke a 1956 record when it topped out at 3400 cfs. The night before a 1945 record went by the wayside and gave way to the new record for that day........2450 cfs. Tonight the 1936 record of 3450 cfs will surely fall as we are looking at temps in the 70's with t-storms!

beautiful wild steelhead caught blind casting

What does all of this mean? First of all, for us this means, our steelhead season has come to a sudden screeching halt! We have canceled all of our remaining trips and will be moving out of the Stanley Steelhead Lodge early :-(. It has been a fabulous season, however, with many nice fish and lots of smiling faces! We thank all of our clients for making this yet another enjoyable time, and we will surely see many of you next year!
I thank all of you, our blog readers, for being patient about the long silence from Stanley! You have to understand that Scott and I have our hands full up here during the month of April. It is a huge effort on our part to not only guide but also cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner, make beds, and clean toilets in our spare time. This does not leave much time for anything else, except the once weekly journey to Ketchum and making sure that our  trusty shop crew has the purchase orders they need to get all the summer merchandise out......you get the picture!

Not the target species, but a nice cuttie!

But back to record high temps and Salmon River streamflows..........The river should be somewhere around 1000cfs right now and rising slowly every day. Temps should be mid 40s-mid 50s. The water should be mostly clear even below the Yankee Fork. In the past 5 years we have been able to wade across even at Torrey's. This season streamflows have been consistently 900cfs above average. We have not been wading across Torrey's all season. The fishing has been great, but the river 'blew out' or got too dark to fish on April 1st for a day. Then there were 2 more higher water events when the temps rose into to 50s or even low 60s. Then on Friday afternoon something significant happened up Valley Creek, like an avalanche or mud slide. Within an hour's time, Valley Creek over doubled in size, dumping dark colored water into the Salmon. I was guiding below Yankee Fork and was completely unaware of what was coming our way. On the way back up at about 7:00PM, I decided to pull over and take a look at the water clarity...........it was flowing dark chocolate colored water with 0 visibility! My client and his son were spending the night at the lodge to fish with us the next day, so I took a scouting trip up above Valley Creek, the water up there was clear. Valley Creek was dumping in all the mud!
Well, the next day was a little better but not much. I guess folks were catching fish up high, but we don't like to harass fish on their redds, so we headed down stream. We caught a couple of cut-throats and hooked one steelie, took a trip up to the Yankee Fork Dredge, fished down at Torrey's for a while and made a fun day of it, but we knew that our steelhead days were done for this season.
Now the river is running mud even up close to the hatchery. The fish are heaving one collective sigh of relief!
The season has come to an end. Maybe if the season gets extended past its regular closing time of April 30th and it freezes hard for a few days in a row, maybe if there is another push of fish( this can happen late in the season), just maybe there could be a few more days. I wouldn't count on it, however!
We are rolling it up! We will spend the next couple of days packing up all the stuff we bring up here to be able to cook the way we like to, we'll pack up all the plant babies I have started while we were here.....it's time to turn our attention to the stillwater fishing or the tailwaters that are open year-round. Time to till the soil and get the garden ready.
Sawtooth Mountains, I will miss waking up to you! I'll miss the honking of the geese and the eerie sound of the sand hill cranes............till next year! Our 10th year of running a lodge up here has come to an end. The decades of guiding Spring steelhead in Stanley have another year added to their history!
See you out there somewhere casting or maybe even hooked up! Spring has sprung, run-off has begun early, maybe this will mean early fishing on the Wood!

Springtime Owyhee Trip Turns Slimy

We are officially in springtime slack, and fishing options have become a bit limited.  Warm temps have thrown a wrench in the steelhead season, and the Wood and Silver creek are closed.  Magic Valley Reservoir and the Big Lost are very fishable, but this week Rob and I decided to try something a little different.  My good buddies Ian and Steven put together a last minute Owyhee trip, and we quickly signed on.  A trip to the desert sounded like a great treat, and the chance of big browns eating dry flies was too much to pass up.  We got an early start on Thursday, and by noon we were knee deep in the tailwater.  Fishing was decent that afternoon.  There were no major hatches, but we managed to fool some fish with nymphs and streamers.  We fished three or four spots, and after a few fish in each we headed for camp.  We made a big fire and scrambled to put rain flies on in the rain.  After warming up around the fire, we made a move to the tents and slept off a days worth of double hauling and Budweiser.

I woke up to a baking tent on Friday, and it didn't take us long to realize that no-one had brought sunscreen.  The beautiful weather overshadowed the slow fishing, and we spent just as much time shooting the breeze on the bank as we did in the water.  The first and only hot fishing of the trip occurred Friday night.  We found a pod of rising fish and picked up a few before it got dark.  Each of us took turns casting to rising heads, and during Ian's shift, I witnessed one of the most improbable doubles ever.  Ian rose a nice fish on a BWO, and after a good fight, he brought it to the net.  He put his rod in his mouth, so he could handle the fish and the net at the same time while letting his fly drag behind him in the water.  Before the fish was out of his hands, his rod started going off in his teeth, and it was apparent that all of our efforts to match the hatch and figure out all the details of the river were a complete waste of time.  This fish had eaten a size 20 baetis dragging about 15 feet behind four guys.  Ian quickly released fish number one and started fighting fish number two.  After a quick fight, he had single handedly landed about 34 inches of fish in one cast.  Knowing we couldn't top what had just happened, we called it a night.  Ian and Steven had to make the trip back to McCall, but Rob and I decided to stick around for one more day.  

On Saturday, the greater Treasure Valley descended on the Owyhee River Canyon, and there wasn't a rock left vacant.  Rob and I had had enough combat fishing for one day, so we went to check out the reservoir.

This is when things got a little strange.  While driving along the lake, Rob spotted cruising carp.  Not only were they cruising, but they were sipping something on the surface.  Any chance of going back to fish the river was now gone; it was carp time.  These fish inspected every fly closely, but they took some small dries.  These were the first carp either of us had ever caught, and their extremely slow dry fly takes were pretty neat.  I still firmly believe that carp are big, gross, slimy creatures, but it was quality entertainment and a great way to end the trip.  

Uptdate 04/16/2012

Hey everyone.  Sorry for the lapse in posts.  Things have been a little crazy, and we're all cranking to keep up with steelhead season.  Here is a quick report: steelheading has been decent the last couple of weeks, but fluctuating water levels have made things a little tricky.  The Salmon is running at 1,350 at the Yankee fork right now.  It has dropped a little bit, and cold temps the rest of the weeks should keep it down.  Things are supposed to warm up a little bit this weekend, so check levels before you make your trip north, and make sure it doesn't spike.  The Big Lost has come up, but it is definitely fishable.  As rainbow trout and steelhead both spawn in the spring, keep your eyes open for spawning fish and leave them plenty of space.  Tight lines.  We'll see you on the river.  

April Vokey and Dr. Rick Williams Coming to Ketchum June 8th-11th

If you haven't heard of April Vokey, simply google her name and see what comes up.  You'll probably see pictures of giant steelhead, videos of perfect spey-casting, and expertly tied intruders.

April is a well known B.C. guide, casting intsructor, fly tyer, and wild fish conservationist.  On June 8th, she and Rick Williams will be joining us for a few days of fun.  Rick is also a certified single and two handed casting instructor, as well as a wild fish conservationist.  He co-owns Idaho Angler, located in Boise, and is an acclaimed author.  The two of them will be leading a number of activities over the course of four days.  There are lots of spots open for most of the clinics, so take a look at the schedule and let us know if you're interested.

Friday evening, June 8th, 6:30-8:30 PM, Meet and Greet

This will be held at Silver Creek Outfitters.  This is a good opportunity to get to know April a little bit and listen to her talk about conservation efforts in British Columbia.  We will raffle off a complete spey setup and a guided trip for two on the Clearwater River.  

Saturday, June 9th, Casting Clinics and Intruder Fly Tying Class

Saturday consists of a co-ed casting clinic with April from 9:00 am-3:00 pm, a co-ed, two handed casting clinic with Rick from 9:00 am-3:00 pm, and an intruder fly tying class with April from 5:00-9:00 pm.  The casting clinics cost $200 each, and that includes lunch.  The single handed clinics will all held on dry land (location TBA).  The two handed clinics will be held on dry land and on Hulen Meadows pond (half of each clinic on each).  The fly tying class will be $100 each, and it will be held at Lost River Outfitters.  Snacks and beverages will be provided for that class.  

Sunday, June 10th, Casting Clinics and Children's Fly Tying Class

On Sunday, Rick will host another Spey casting clinic from 9:00 am-3:00 pm.  April will lead a women's only single handed casting clinic from 9:00 am-3:00 pm, but this class is currently full.  If you are interested in participating in a women's only class with April, let us know, and she might have availability for another clinic on Monday.  Also on Sunday, April will host a Children's fly tying class from 5:00-9:00 pm.  This will be held at Ketchum On The Fly and the cost will be $100.  

Monday, June 11th Casting Clinic and Beginners Fly Tying Class

Monday will start at 9:00 am with a co-ed single handed casting clinic, hosted by April.  This will last until 3:00 pm.  At 5:00 pm, she will lead a "learn to tie" fly tying class, and that will last until 9:00 pm.  The casting clinic will cost $200 and the fly tying class $100.  

We have openings for almost all of the clinics, but space is limited.  This is a great opportunity to learn from some of the best in the industry.  Call us or swing by the shop to sign up for any of the classes.   

The Big Wood is Now Closed

After a great winter season on the wood, it's time to take a break for a few months.  I hope you had a much fun as I did, looking for rising heads in riffles, on cold winter days.  Now it's time to explore other opportunities, until memorial day.  The Big Lost should continue to fish well until the flows are jacked up, and steelhead season is now in full force.  Once the rivers blow all together it'll be time to go the still water route.  Until then, go look for some steelhead or hit the lost. Tight Lines.